Post navigation

Shattered Star #29: Chaos & Confusion

At the end of last session, we left our heroes resting after their exertions in the ruined shrine on the remote island of Warvil’s Folly.

The party rested aboard the Mermaid’s Mistress for the best part of a week, while it lay at anchor in a sheltered lagoon riding out a seasonal storm that lashed the surrounding waters. During their rest, several of the party reflected on their recent experiences while Narfu spent much of his time re-carving the altar in the ruins to rededicate it to his divine patron—Obad-Hai.

Eventually, the storm broke and the party resumed their journey south. As before the captain, sailed a wide course around the Isle of Lost Souls. Several days into the journey, the vessel sailed through a region of ocean punctuated by several large rocky spires thrusting out of the deep. One of these spires was occupied…

Narfu noticed a large bird flying toward the ship. Several of the party thought it might be the bird that had fallen onto the deck several weeks ago with a broken wing. However, this was not the case! This bird has a beautiful female head and as it drew closer it began to sing an unearthly song of beauty. The song captivated most of the crew who were above deck, and they all began trying to get into the rowboat so they could row off to be with their new friend. Several of the party—Zainnis (and his leopard companion), Aq and Kara—were likewise transfixed by the beauty of the song and as Nok and Narfu began to shoot their missile weapons at the approaching creature—identified as a siren by Nok—chaos and confusion broke out.

Aq decided to go get the captain to calm matters down, but when he entered her cabin, he discovered her in a compromising position with her first mate. The paladin—now confused as well as enchanted—returned to the deck to see Kara trying to stop Narfu shoot his bow and Zainnis’ companion threatening Nok. As the beast circled Nok, Zainnis tried to disarm Nok with a well-placed arrow, but the attack failed and Nok struck at the leopard with his falchion grievously wounding it. Seeing this, Zainnis shot and injured the half-orc wizard and things began to take a turn for the worse.

At this point, Morden made it onto deck and was immediately enchanted by the song just as Narfu managed to deafen Kara with a thunderstone and Grooble broke the enchantment on Zainnis with a well-placed protection from evil. However, by now Nok’s blood was up and he again attacked the retreating leopard. It looked like a full-scale fight would break out. As Narfu climbed the rigging to get a better shot, Morden tried to tackle him, but failed. As he chased Narfu up the rigging, the resourceful monk slowed him down with a well-placed tanglefoot bag!

However, by this time Grooble—baffled at the actions of his companions—sprung into action. Using water walk to chase after the enscrolled sailors, he drew the ire of the siren with a well-placed sound burst. While it didn’t disable the beast, it did stop her singing and although she blasted the lone gnome with powerful sonic energy this was enough to break her song’s effect over the sailors and those of the party still enscrolled.

Now, able to focus on the attacker, the party unleashed a barrage of missile fire and drove the heavily injured creature away. It flew back to its lair. Nok—using a potion of fly—and Grooble gave chase and killed it.

Thus, the party were victorious and the balance of their travel to Winetha was uneventful.

After putting into Winetha for two weeks, the party again continued south. After another eight days sailing, they finally reached their goal—the Lady’s Light and the site of their next adventure!

Creighton is the publisher at Raging Swan Press and the designer of the award winning adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey. He has designed many critically acclaimed modules such as Retribution and Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands and worked with Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Expeditious Retreat Press, Rite Publishing and Kobold Press.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

As a busy GM, your time is precious. Let Raging Swan Press do your campaign prep so you can spend more time plotting against your players.
Support us and help Raging Swan Press offer its freelance designers better pay! We've already increased our word rate to nine cents a word, but we want to do more.

In return for your support, you get our books earlier and cheaper. You even get a warm fuzzy feeling because you are helping Raging Swan Press in its epic quest to make GMing easier and more fun!